Voting in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh for 68 seats in the state Assembly will take place on Thursday. The election is a direct fight between arch rivals incumbent Congress and the BJP. Traditionally, no government in HP has repeated office. The outgoing state assembly has 36 MLAs of the Congress and 26 of the BJP. The rest were independents. Its a do-or-die battle for octogenarian six-time chief minister, 85, Virbhadra Singh.
This may be his last electoral fight even as the old warhorse of the Congress- is facing several cases of disproportionate assets. Virbhadra Singh says he would not like to hang his boots anytime soon.
Midway through the election campaign, the BJP central leadership made an exception by announcing Prem Kumar Dhumal as the CM candidate of the party.
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